A Culture Of Everyday Credit: Housekeeping, Pawnbroking, And Governance In Mexico City, 1750-1920 (engendering Latin America)

a culture of everyday credit Engendering Latin America editors Donna J. Guy Ohio State University Mary Karasch Oakland University Asunción Lavrin Arizona State University A Culture of Everyday Credit Housekeeping, Pawnbroking, and Governance in Mexico City, 1750–1920 marie eileen francois university of nebraska press lincoln & london ∫ 2006 by the Board of Regents of the University of Nebraska All rights reserved Manufactured in the United States of America ! Portions of chapters 1 and 3 were previously published in ‘‘Cloth and Silver: Pawning and Material Life in Mexico City at the Turn of the Nineteenth Century,’’ The Americas 60.3 (January 2004): 325–62. Reprinted with permission. Portions of chapter 2 were previously published in ‘‘Prendas and Pulperías: The Fabric of the Neighborhood Credit Business in Mexico City, 1780s–1830s,’’ Estudios de Historia Novohispana 20 (1999): 67–110. Reprinted with permission. Table I in appendix 1 has been translated and augmented from a table published in ‘‘Vivir de prestado: El empeño en la ciudad de México’’ in Bienes y Vivencias: El Siglo XIX Mexicano, vol. 4 of Historia de la vida cotidiana en México, ed. Ann Staples, series ed. Pilar Gonzalbo (México: El Colegio de México / Fondo de Cultura Económica, 2005). Library of Congress Cataloging-inPublication Data Francois, Marie Eileen, 1963– A culture of everyday credit : housekeeping, pawnbroking, and governance in Mexico City, 1750–1920 / Marie Eileen Francois. p. cm. — (Engendering Latin America) Includes bibliographical references and index. isbn-13: 978-0-8032-6923-1 (pbk. : alk. paper) isbn-10: 0-8032-6923-4 (pbk. : alk. paper) 1. Pawnbroking—Mexico—Mexico City—History. 2. Home economics— Mexico—Mexico City—History. 3. Pawnbroking—Government policy—Mexico—Mexico City. I. Title. II. Engendering Latin America (Unnumbered) hg2106.m63m494 2006 332.3%40972530903—dc22 2006004735 contents List of Illustrations vi List of Tables vii Acknowledgments Abbreviations Introduction xi xiv 1 1. Hocking the Private in Public: Credit Policy, Housekeeping, and Status, 1750–1840 17 2. Collateral Lending: Pulperías and the Monte de Piedad, 1750–1840 3. Collateral Living: Consumption, Anxious Liberals, 78 and Daily Life, 1830–80 4. Brokering Interests: Casas de Empeño and an Expanded 114 Monte de Piedad, 1830–75 5. Positivist Housekeeping: Domesticity, Work, and Consumer Credit, 1880–1910 150 6. Porfirian Paradoxes: Profit versus Regulation, Capital versus Welfare 189 7. A Material Revolution: Militancy, Policy, and Housekeeping, 1911–20 224 Conclusion: Housekeeping, Pawnbroking, and Politics Epilogue: Still A Culture of Everyday Credit 258 268 Appendix 1 273 Appendix 2 293 Appendix 3 317 Notes 337 Index 411 Disclaimer: Some images in the original version of this book are not available for inclusion in the eBook. 48 illustrations 1. ‘‘El Camino del Curato o sea La Oca de la Orquesta, 1869’’ 2. ‘‘La Molendera’’ 89 106 3. ‘‘La Planchadora’’ 4. ‘‘La Lavandera’’ 109 166 5. ‘‘Camarera Mexicana’’ 6. ‘‘Las Lavanderas’’ 7. ‘‘Cargadores’’ 2 170 180 8. ‘‘Venta de Prendas, Monte de Piedad, and New Home Sewing Machine’’ 9. ‘‘En el Empeño’’ 238 186 tables 1.1. Female Household Heads in Cuartel 9 Sample, Mexico City, 1811 Census 33 39 1.2. Household Goods in Pawning Transactions, 1787–1830 71 2.1. Principal Balance of Monte de Piedad, 1802 2.2. Type, Average Sale Price, and Customer Gender of Auctioned Goods at Monte de Piedad, 1802 74 97 3.1. Dowries Provi